2nd week of clinicals and I don't know if I'm going to make it

Nursing Students CNA/MA

Published

Tonight was difficult. :eek:

I do not find situations with the residents extremely stressful, it's other things.

Before we got to clinicals we were told to jump in and there wouldn't be a lot of hand holding. No problem. :up:

Tonight everyone was reprimanded because we were not able to be found for a few minutes. We were all helping with residents. When we help with residents we provide privacy by closing the door. I understand that the instructor needs to generally know where we are, but the insinuation that some people were goofing off was just not right. :mad:

No one, and I mean NO ONE, has time to goof off. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off from the time we step in the place, until the time we leave. Personally, I was looking for the instructor and the instructor was in a room for a while with a resident. I walked down one hall and there were quite a few lights on. The one CNA there asked if I would help her quickly get someone to the toilet. I said, "yes". Was I supposed to say, "no"? :confused:

Then 15 minutes before we were due to go home a student needed help with a woman who had to use the bathroom. I got pulled from the room I was in. Everyone else (who lives no more than 20 minutes from the place) was on their way out the door, we were just getting started. I live 1 hour and 15 minutes away. Okay, so I went and got our supplies because she needed a few things done. We finished 40 minutes later. Okay, I can swallow that one. :smackingf

Here is what I cannot deal with....

Don't and I mean DO NOT even think for one minute that it's okay to insinuate that we are not working. I get home every night after 10pm (tonight 11pm). Back aching, feet aching, and everything else aching. While I'm there I am constantly working with residents and staff. If I'm not helping them I'm restocking supplies in rooms. If it's slow we have even been instructed to wipe down handrails and clean portable toilets. I have never performed housekeeping duties in my life, outside of taking care of my own home. So, there is no way, that the idea of "goofing off" should even come to mind!

Second, if we are sent to take care of one thing and you tell us in the midst of doing it...to do something else, don't chastise us because we don't have enough/or appropriate supplies and have to go get more. If we would have known you wanted us to do something else we would have prepared for it. :nono:

I can take a lot of things, but those are not included:down:. :madface:

Don't know if I will last another 2 weeks. :banghead:

You can do this!! I agree with CSO/CNA Instructor. The instructor probably had some concerns with others and just voiced them to everybody. I'm sure you are good at what you are doing and were doing exactly what you said you were. Usually, it's the ones that care the most and take the most pride in their work feel the hurt of others words more than the slackers.

There will be good days and there will be bad days. Chalk this one up to an "off day" and put that smile back on your face and push forward! You can do it!!

You're absolutely right. It was probably just a rotten day. I do try extra hard, so it does bother me more than some others I guess. :uhoh3: I love your enthusiasm!!! :up:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
They must do clinicals differently where you're at. At the LTC facility where I'm employed, when we did clinicals there our instructor told us not to let the other CNA's just command us around and have us do stuff for them. We were assigned certain residents to care for and we weren't there just to make everything easier for the CNA's on duty. Personally, I found clinicals as easy as pie because I was already working the residents halls unassisted by that time, I just hadn't been certified yet to do vitals. With clinical shifts I was only caring for 2 people.....on my regular shifts I had 15.

I thought it was going to be that way. I would have loved for it to be like that, because then I would get to see some of the residents more than once. The CNAs that work there are nice though. We have to actually ask them if they need help. It just so happened that on that night, no one was around for some reason and there were a bunch of lights on. I didn't mind helping of course. I prefer to work than stand around not doing anything.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Reading all this is seriously making me DREAD having to obtain my CNA to continue with nursing school. UGH!

Don't dread it! I was venting about one day. Overall it has been a good experience. We all go through tough spots, me and you included. I actually had a night or two where I wasn't ready to go. It will be a good experience. Probably not easy, but good.

Like all of these wonderful folks here have told me...YOU CAN DO IT!! :yeah:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Please do not give up!!I promise you it will get better and you will get the swing of things.It seems like you are doing a great job!

Thank you! I'm not going to give up. It was tempting to just challenge and go take the test. I figured I'm half way through why do that now? :confused: Great job...well....I'm trying my best that's all I can do. :)

Thank you for your words of encouragement! :up:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

And this mentality and attitude is EXACTLY you are good at what you do!! Good job!! Those residents are lucky you're there. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Getreal2011-----I think you are on the right track, put this behind you and move forward. I wish you the best of luck throughout your entire career in the health field.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Getreal2011-----I think you are on the right track, put this behind you and move forward. I wish you the best of luck throughout your entire career in the health field.

Thank you! :D I passed the class! :) Now I just have to pass the state exam... :eek:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

My clinicals were similar to yours. We worked at a nursing home with around 165 beds, and the nurses and CNAs were constantly over-worked and had a ridiculous patient load. There were only 16 of us doing clinical and, after we fed our resident's breakfast in the morning, we were grouped in teams of two to do bed baths, vitals, ADLs, clothing changes, showers, ROM, to assist with physical therapy, you name it, we found ourselves doing it. Our instructor somehow always ended up being pulled into a room by a student, or sometimes by a staff member, and we were rarely able to find her when we needed her. Usually, we would get all the supplies we thought we would need, and we would begin a bath, about halfway through the bath, the patient would have a BM (usually diarrhea) and we would have to change all the linen, get new supplies, and start completely over. Some of the students in my class didn't handle BMs, or any other bodily fluid, very well so they often came and got the two of us who could handle such things. On more than one occasion, they would burst into my room and tell me or my partner that we needed to come help them clean their resident while they got new linen and supplies. This caused everyone to fall behind and, because of this, we were constantly playing catch up. Giving showers was a nightmare as there were only seven shower rooms in the facility and it was against facility policy to have a male and female in the same shower room, even though there were about six showers per room. Often times, we would put our patients on the shower chair and cover them with a bath blanket, only to get to the shower and find that it was occupied with someone of the opposite gender. Sometimes we waited out in the hall and other times we went back to the room and gave a bed bath. We also had to deal with patients who were total lifts; this was a problem because there were only two lift machines in the entire facility, and we often found ourselves unable to move them until someone returned the lift. I was stressed out during clinical, but, in the end, I passed and got my CNA license. And now, I am about to start nursing school. So even though your clinical may be frustrating and exhausting, just know that it will end and you will get through it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment